My journey continues. As I dwell deeper into conquering my challenges. My thought process has thus changed. In my very first blog on ‘Perceive the Pattern’, I enlisted the challenges present. One of them was competition eating away into my size of the market pie.

The larger share of the pie will always go to competing giants. The smaller shares are fought for tooth and nail by the rest. Most of us have been there (or still are), staring at our competitors with mixed emotions of awe and envy.

But what can I do to keep my share, or even grow it? How do I gain on the competition?Well, just go back to basics. We are all in business because of a niche we have. This is a simple statement of ‘Our brand is a cut above the rest because….’ Focusing on this niche would help differentiate from all.

Leveraging the agility that comes with being small goes a long way. The big competitors will have many systems and processes and people in place. Thus, rendering them less agility. Act fast in situations, jump at opportunities.

Rome was not built in a day. Neither were the big brands. So why stress over it? Instead, the focus must be on building our brand up in stages or phases or just one block at a time.

Here is a mind-blowing concept….Don’t go for that piece of the pie when the whole world is the kitchen. Just make one.

In a world of too much advertising noise and clutter, it gets harder and harder to compete for the ever-diminishing attention of the customer. So, it’s time to create a world within a world where I am the leader.

So here are a few experiments I tried out that are yielding positive results. But the true testimony of success would be when someone else copies me.

Competitor Stalker

When checking out the competitors, I discovered what worked for them and what didn’t. And with these lessons, and a creative twist on them I have something fresh and non-repetitive. I even look at other industries for inspiration like travel, automobiles and the sort.

Conversation Starter

Interaction is the best way to engage the audience as they get to experience the brand and its personality. Having content that would provoke a (positive) reaction presents a better opportunity to personalize the experience the audience would have with the brand. The goal is to get the audience to link (loyalists would imprint) with the brand.

Stop Being Pushy

We all buy products only if we see it adding value to our lives. Then why must the communication just be about the product? The content has to add value too. It has to be relevant, meaningful, interesting and exciting. Thus, I have shifted my focus to customer problems, challenges, interests, and passions.

A Trendsetter

As we all know, the marketing universe has never been more fast-paced. In fact, we travel at the speed of light in the digital era. And we need to catch up with our audience when it comes to changing trends. With a keen ear on the ground, roll out content that is proactive, fresh and creates a buzz. This is again an ever-changing scenario. Therefore, keep rolling out new stuff so our audience can’t resist our charms.

A Charming Storyteller

We have all raised on stories. It is in our DNA to pay better attention to stories. Then why not tell a story about what we sell. The story has to be appealing enough to inspire an action by the audience.

As the author, Simon Sinek expressed in a TED Talk, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Comments

Nicely captured the current thoughtprocess on marketing of products.. I do remember when I was in my first comp, Gili's first campaign was at the first Shoppers stop at andheri was with the punch lines of india'first branded jewellery story...asking the consumer with a pic "what's your story"

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.Digital pk